"Palais de Steff" has arrived and is a work in progress.
So come on in...grab a cocktail... or the nearest available houseboy and make yourself at home...feel free to wander about or just plonk yourself down and stay a while...
Princess says "Hello and Welcome"!...

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

We are Well Hung...

...Hello Dhaarlings...

It has been federal election time in OzAnd as Voting is Compulsory for every Citizen...

Last Saturday was a National day of Civic Duty...To join the queue at the local polling booth and cast our vote...

From All ReportsThe Media would have us believe that there are only 2 runners in the competition

Ms Julia Gillard... Current Labor Prime Minister and First Female to hold the position...

Self proclaimed "Ranga"

Mr Tony Abbott...Leader of the Liberal Coallition in opposition...

Self proclaimed "Action Man"

(And not scared to strap on the budgie smugglers or spandex)

However... in Australia... We do not Elect an individual as Our Prime MinisterThey are chosen and appointed to the position by their Party... And only after they have gained enough votes for individual party members within their own elctorate, and win enough seats in the House of Representatives, can they then form a majority to govern the country outright and take on the mantle of Prime Minister...

It is a long standing system which has served us well...But the Media suddenly seems to have overlooked...We are not a republic and it is not a Presidential Run...Although from all the hype and spin you would have us believe otherwise...

We have many more shades of political parties and independant candidates in this country other than the two Major Corporatised Brand PartiesAnd imagine the shock when independant members and even for the first time a member of the Green Party got elected to a seat in the lower house...

"How could this happen" is the collective cry from the Media...

Well is it any wonder...I say... What do you expect to happen when you take your eye off the ball.

As none of the other runners get any air time or coverage in the media and if they do.. it is a 3 second, one sentence "spin bite"... and nothing of any substance.As an example... The debate that went on in the Media over wether the Political leaders should have a debate or not have a debate became "The" News Story... rather than rational policy discussion and objective comparison.

The general lack of clear policy and schoolyard bickering and the "I've got the biggest willy" posturing of the peoples representatives has warn thin with the Australian Electorate and as a result we are in a situation where neither of the two major parties have enough seats to claim outright government.

I think that this result has sent a message to all politicians of any persuasion that the People are sick of the old way of Adversarial Politics based on taking sides and opposing each others ideas just for the sake of it... without producing tangible policies and positive outcomes for the nation..

No one is prepared to stand up and make the hard decisions and have become ruled by focus groups and lobbyist opinion...

Independants and the Greens now hold the balance of power and the Labor and Liberal/Coallition Parties will have to enter into serious negotiations and compromise to form a stable government even in a minority... We have had trouble getting our head around the situation but I think that the following sums things up pretty well...

I didn't realise that we had a "Psychic Croc"... But obviously the Tiawanese did...

6 comments:

The US is a republic and have direct election of Representatives and Senators, but NOT for President! That is determined through an arcane 18th century creation called the Electoral College. Occasionally it leads to anomalies like in 2000 where Al Gore got more popular votes nationwide, but George Bush won because he had more Electoral Votes!

Hi XlPardon my ignorance and thanks for the link...It all makes more sense now... I think.I just get really pissed at all the media hype that distracts form the real issues. I don't care what colour their hair is, the unflattering clothing or how big the guys knob looks in speedos... the question is ... can they do the job and impliment policy...It all gets lost in spin and i get sick of hearing the same meaningless soundbite over and over with joournalists adding their subjective rather than objective opinion...Alegedly.. when we cast a vote it is is meant to be based on informed choice, the problem is that the real factual information and commentary gets side lined by journo's in the media mininising content and discussion of the issues in preference to titivation and inuendo presented as hard hitting reporting... this time around it became a situation where the journo's themselves became the story! I ask ...is that a good thing?

Thank you for the information on the system in Australia. Checks and balances are built in. In Germany is no duty to vote - and sometimes one would want this duty be implemented - the numbers do sink over the years, I guess less than two thirts of the voters actually go voting!The media spin is cruel. There seemingly something gets out of hand. I sometimes are a bit shocked when reading or looking at English newspapers, there's a sound, an aggresivity i can not understand. If the journalists play with themselves and simply produce their own news - and their own actions become the news, they are simply unable and lazy, or corrupt. Some Gonzo jounalism would be good for them.

Dear Magothankyou for your comments.Although Voting here is compusloryther was a huge increase in the nimber of informal/invalid votes whereby people conciously failed to complete the ballot sheet correctly therefore, there vote becoming invalid. It is I think another way that people choose to protest against the incumbent and oposition government of the day.There was also a movement away from the two major parties toward the Green Party and Independent candidates.Unfortunately we have a Preferential system when it comes to counting the votes. whereby each candidate on the ticket allocates their votes to anoter should they not win enough primary votes.

If we had a system whereby your 1 vote only counted for one candidate then we would have 17 new Green Party seats in the lower house, instead we have only 1 as through deals their primary votes go to the candidate that they have formed an alliance with from one of the major parties.Hence we end up with a primarily bipartisan system.Although this time around given the result...It is time for a change...